WHO ever looked upon yon starry spheres,
Which brightly shine from out the dark-blue sky,
Nor called to mind the friends of other years,
The hopes, the joys, the transient smiles and tears,
Gushing from out where hurried memories lie,
And waking the full heart to highest ecstasy?
0, what a glorious vision, when the moon,
Silently gliding through her pathless way,
Has reached the extremest point of her high noon,
Shedding o'er this our earth her radiant boon,
While twinkling stars, and orbs of steadier ray,
Shine with a light that mocks the intenser glare of
day.
O, who has ever gazed on such a scene,
Nor thought the spirit of the blest were there ?
Who, that beholds not in that blue serene
Bright isles, the abode of pleasures yet unseen,
Except by those who, freed from mortal care,
Have winged their raptured flight to realms of upper
air.
The mother, who has watched with sleepless eye
Her babe, and rocked with tireless foot the while,
And when she saw the little sufferer die,
Bowed her meek head, and wept in agony,
Fancies she hears, in yonder starry isle,
Her little cherub's voice, and sees his angel smile.
0, ye departed spirits of my sires,
And ye, the loved ones of my childhood's days,
While now I look on yonder heavenly fires,
Methinks I hear you tune your seraph lyres ;
Methinks I see you bend your pitying gaze
On him who still must tread alone earth's gloomy
maze.
Thou angel spirit, who so oft didst sing
My infant cares to sleep upon thy breast,
Let me but hear the rustling of thy wing
Around thy child its guardian influence fling !
O, come thou from the island of the blest,
And bear my weary soul up to thy sainted rest !
Can we forget departed friends ? Ah, no !
Within our hearts their memory buried lies ;
The thought that where they are we too shall go
Will cast a light o'er darkest scenes of woe !
For to their own blest dwellings in the skies,
The souls whom Christ sets free exultingly shall
rise!
